March 28th

Year 2120

City of Mithforden

Kingdom of Fergahn, Gartaena

Merdilen poked his head from behind the barrel he was hiding behind and looked at the House of Records. Since the bounty hunter’s attack, two days ago, he had traveled with haste, only stopping when absolutely necessary and for the minimum amount of time. Because of that, he had arrived at the city of Mithforden with no more problems, and had managed to sneak in. It was very big, full of universities, museums, laboratories, and the like. He was now hiding behind a barrel in an alley, a few blocks away from his destination. From here, he could see the acclaimed Tower of Records perfectly.

It was a perfectly straight tower made of some kind of white stone, and Merdilen counted twenty-six floors. If he was correct, it was because the records were organized in alphabetical order, and so there was one floor for each letter of the alphabet. Following that thought, all information concerning the Transmutation War should be stored on the twentieth floor, where the records starting with ‘T’ should be located.

Merdilen had knocked out a city guard a little while ago, and now struggled to put on his armor. The House of Records would logically be full of guards, so getting by as one of them would be the only way in. He had to avoid combat at all costs, as they would be way too many for him to fight. And he hadn’t wanted to Transmutate his clothes into guard armor either, as he didn’t know if they had anything special other guards might recognize. The guard he had chosen to knock out was pretty much his same height and weight, and so if he didn’t attract any unwanted attention to himself, he should be okay.

After a while of wrestling with the uncomfortable stock iron armor, he finally put it on and headed out from the side alley he was in. The streets were full of people, and as it was still daytime, no one paid attention to someone wearing standard city guard armor in the middle of the city. He paved his way towards the House of Records, until he arrived at the bottom. A guard chief was standing at the bottom, next to a fat and bald clerk who sat in front of a desk, writing down everyone who entered the building.

“Name?” asked him the clerk, without bothering to look at him.

“Brent,” Merdilen replied, remembering how another guard had addressed the one whose armor he was now wearing. “I’m arriving late because I was sick, and I’m still feeling a bit odd, that’s why my voice sounds strange too.”

“Spare us the details, kid,” the guard chief said. “We don’t care.”

“...Right.”

“Brent Jackson, right?” the clerk asked.

“...Yeah,” Merdilen replied.

After a few tense seconds of the clerk examining him, he finally said, “All right. Go in.”

“And hurry up,” the guard chief added. “The boys are tired of covering for you.”

So, Merdilen finally breathed out, and entered quickly into the building. It looked like a massive library, with rows upon rows of books lined up on extremely tall shelves and a few seats here and there. Two big sets of stairs were positioned in the middle of the giant room, leading up to the next floor. A big red ‘A’ was painted on the farther wall, indicating which records were stored on this floor.

Several guards were standing on strategic spots, to make sure no files went mysteriously missing. There were also some civilians reading and roaming the hallways, but just nobles. Most of the city population was confined to going to universities and other libraries, to keep the place relatively free of people and for the guards to be able to keep an eye on everyone.

As they had registered everyone who had entered the building, he should stick with his ‘Brent’ identity, at least for now, if he wanted to get to his objective without trouble. Now, all that he had to do was to get to the twentieth floor without arousing suspicion, steal the files related to the other Transmutator from under all the guards’ noses, go all the way back down again, and leave the city before anyone noticed he was ever there.

He headed towards the stairs at the end of the hall, trying to walk as casually as possible while hiding his nervousness. After what seemed like hours of him walking through the middle of the library, and what seemed like millions of stares in his back, he arrived to the stairs, and started to climb. As he never used any kind of armor, the stock iron armor he was now wearing to look like a guard felt extremely heavy, and going up the stairs was way harder than it should be. Not to mention he had to go up and down twenty floors. He tried not to think about it and started climbing.

He went up through sections ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D,’ ‘E,’ and ‘F’ with no problem, but when he was about to arrive at the stairs of section ‘G,’ on the seventh floor, he heard an alarm bell ringing far below him, and then immediately heard equal alarm bells ringing out loud ever nearer, until he saw a man running to an alarm bell at the floor he was in and ringing it too.

Damn it! Merdilen exclaimed in his mind, looking around desperately as inconspicuously as possible. Did they figure out I’m here already?! His whole body tensed, and it took all his strength not to look terrified. All the guards and noblemen around him looked confused, until the man at the bell mimicked something men in the floors below had shouted.

“All House of Records guards, head to mid point immediately! All House of Records guards, head to mid point immediately!”

Mid point? Merdilen wondered, puzzled. As he was posing as a guard, he’d have to head to ‘mid point’ too, except he had no idea what or where that was. But, to Merdilen’s relief, all the other guards in the place headed towards the stairs leading up to the upper floors, and so he simply followed the rest. They climbed up to the thirteenth floor, which was the ‘M’ section, and then he realized what ‘mid point’ was. It was the thirteenth floor, because as the House of Records was twenty-six floors high, the thirteenth floor was the exact middle point. That way, neither guards on the top nor bottom floors would have to travel too much when summoned.

As he couldn’t afford to look suspicious, and he would have to go through the thirteenth floor anyways, he arrived at ‘mid point’ with the rest of the guards. It looked pretty much the same as all the other floors, except for the fact that there were easily a hundred guards here. Oh, no, Merdilen thought. There was no way he’d be able to face off against a hundred guards. He just had to hope they wouldn’t find out who he was. There was a guard with better armor and a black cape standing atop a chair in the middle of the room, and he now started to speak.

“Do you people know the guard Brent Jackson?” he said with a deep and strong voice. “Well, he today arrived late to work, excusing himself with saying he had been sick. No one really cared, until another Brent Jackson appeared. He was missing his armor, sword, and shield, and had a huge lump on his head. He said a man who appeared to fit the physical description of the Transmutator had jumped him, knocking him unconscious and stealing his gear. Therefore… There is an impostor among us.”

Everyone started muttering between themselves, showing a mixture of emotions between puzzleness, nervousness, and fear. Merdilen stared at the man in terror, and forgot to breathe. If they found out who he was, right here, right now, he would be doomed. He wouldn’t last as much as a minute against a hundred guards.

“Therefore, everyone stand in an orderly line and give me your ID numbers,” the guard continued. “Anyone who doesn’t will be executed.”

Merdilen stayed completely still, having difficulty to breathe. Needless to say, he had no way of knowing which was the guard Brent’s ID number. He wouldn’t be able to keep posing as a guard for long, and once he got near the middle of the mob of guards, it would be too late to escape. He had no choice. He headed to the back of the line, and when he thought nobody was looking, walked as casually as he managed to towards the closer wall, then through it using his Transmutation.

But of course, someone saw him do it, and exclaimed, “One of the guards just walked through a wall!”

Then, all hell broke loose. Of course, he didn’t see it, but from the adjacent room he had gotten to, he heard it. Everyone started to speak with loud voices, all at the same time, shouting to get heard over the rest, and he heard several swords being unsheathed and metallic footsteps running over the wooden floor towards where he was. He was now in a small room with a few shelves, a desk, and several chairs, and so he sprang towards one of the walls.

It would be no use escaping down, as he needed to get the information from the twentieth floor, and so he Transmutated part of the wall with his feet into steps he used to go up. He had to go up as sneakily as possible, as everyone would be searching the whole place for him now. They probably knew in which room he was now, and so to move with more speed and swiftness, he Transmutated the heavy iron armor into his usual black clothes. He felt the difference immediately, and so he kept running up his newly-Transmutated stairs to the fourteenth floor.

As he had caught the guards by surprise and they ran slower than he did because of their heavy armor, he got to the fourteenth floor before them. That floor was fortunately empty now, clearly because of the emergency state the House of Records had to be in now. He ran across the room and, without missing a beat, sprang to the stairs that led up to the fifteenth floor. He knew he would have to stop to rest long before he arrived at the twentieth floor, but he had to put as much distance between him and the rest of the guards before that happened. He kept running, and when he reached the sixteenth floor, he realized something.

He couldn’t hear the whole group of guards following him, only about half of them, and he thought he knew why. He had Transmutated the stairs he had used to reach the fourteenth floor back into the wall right before sprinting to the next set of stairs in an attempt to cover his path, and so they didn’t have any way of knowing if he had gone up or down when they had lost him. That’s why they had split the group. He needed to use that information to his advantage.

Merdilen ran towards one of the floor’s windows and Transmutated as many books as he could into a big rock boulder. He didn’t like to damage information like that, but this was an emergency. He dragged the boulder to the edge of the window and pushed it down. The massive rock boulder fell down the side of the House of Records for what Merdilen estimated to be six floors, until it crashed with strength against a cornice, loudly breaking in half. It wouldn’t take long for the guards to realize it had just been a bait, but it should give him at least several precious minutes.

Merdilen stopped to breathe for just the bare minimum, and then started running again. He never stopped hearing shouts and footsteps dangerously close below him, but then finally arrived at the twentieth floor, panting and gasping for air. He let his hands fall to his knees, and after catching his breath, looked up. He was finally in the ‘T’ section. On top of each shelf was a big sign reading in alphabetical order the records it contained, and after scanning several times the whole room with his eyes, Merdilen finally found what he was looking for.

‘Transmutation War.’ He rushed to it and started quickly scanning the names. He had to hurry up. He didn’t know the name of the enemy Transmutator, but he spotted a book that probably told all about it, including his lair. ‘Transmutators: Masters of Matter.’ He quickly grabbed it and stuffed it in a newly-Transmutated backpack that was hanging from his back, but as he was about to leave, another tome caught his eye. ‘Transmutation War: Cataclysm.’ Below the title, a subtitle read, ‘The unknown end to the deadliest war the world had ever faced.’

Merdilen had never known how the Transmutation War had really ended, and it sounded like something interesting, so he stuffed the book in his backpack too, because why not. He was already feeling the weight of the two tomes in his backpack though, so he couldn’t afford to take any more. He could already hear the shouts of the guards almost at the floor he was on, so he rushed towards the wall. He Transmutated part of it into an opening and peered out.

If he had a gold coin for each time he had escaped death by jumping from a tower, he would have two gold coins. Which wasn’t a lot, but it was weird that it had happened twice. Still, it made sense. Jumping was a perfect way of making distance between him and his opponents, and the higher the place he jumped from, the longer it’d take for his pursuers to catch up to him. But crashing against the ground at high speed was quite dizzying, and it left him extremely weakened, so he had to of course try to avoid that.

Merdilen hesitated for a few seconds, looking at the city below from the extremely high altitude he was in, and finally jumped. But this time, instead of just letting himself plummet down, he Transmutated the wall’s stone bricks into a massive round cloth canopy, with belts that clinged to his arms and backpack. A parachute.

Of course, it was nothing professional, but it still slowed down his fall enormously, making him peacefully drift away from the House of Records. The guards that arrived where he had been moments earlier looked at him open-mouthed, and as they were indoor guards, they were wielding swords, not bows. All they could do was look at Merdilen as he floated away. Although his head hurt because of the continuous use of his Transmutation, he grinned and waved at them as the sun set.

Kayline rushed to the side room of the inn, followed by the rest of the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team. A messenger had finally arrived, seemingly with reports of the Transmutator. The messenger, a relatively young girl, was standing in the middle of a private room in the inn in which the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team was, and she started to speak as soon as they entered the room.

“I come from the city of Mithforden. The Transmutator attacked the House of Records two days ago, allegedly to steal some kind of unknown information, and then escaped,” she said, straight to the point. “I left on horse little after the Transmutator left, and so I don’t know if they were able to discover what he had stolen. The guard chiefs sent me to look for the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, and they are asking you to head to Mithforden immediately. Although it is unlikely, the Transmutator may still be somewhere around the area, and even if he’s not, when they find out what he had been looking for, that might give you a hint on where to start looking for him.”

“...Understood,” Sir Grendar said after a while with a serious expression. “We’ll depart immediately.”

“Were there any casualties?” Kayline asked, worried.

“Not at all,” the messenger answered. “The Transmutator escaped by unexpectedly jumping out of the House of Records and creating a parachute, so he was able to avoid all the guards clustered there. He did fight a trio of guards when he touched down, though, but he just knocked them all out. Aside from lumps on their heads, none of them had anything more severe than long but completely superficial sword cuts.”

“That’s great,” commented Kayline. “But… isn’t it a little odd? Why didn’t he just kill them? It would’ve probably been easier for him not to hold back.”

“He may have wanted someone to witness his glory or something to become famous,” Salvatore proposed.

“Yeah, but he didn’t have to leave all three of them unharmed. One would have been enough. Besides, everyone at the House of Records had already ‘witnessed his glory.’”

“Well, we have no way of knowing why he did this or that. You’ll have to ask him next time we fight,” said Salvatore sarcastically.

“I just find it strange. He’s supposed to be a bad guy.”

“It’s better not to overthink it,” suggested Sir Grendar. “The facts are, he’s the descendant of one of the biggest mass murderers in the world, and if we don’t stop him soon, he’ll have the power to follow in his ancestor’s footsteps. We don’t want that. Everything else is just speculation.”

Kayline then chose to remain silent, and after quickly packing the few things they had in that inn, they hopped on their horses, and started the trip towards the city of Mithforden. From what they had always heard, the Transmutator traveled on foot, so as the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team travelled on horses, they covered terrain about twice as fast as he did. If they found out which specific records the Transmutator had stolen, they might be able to discover what he was after, and then it would just be a matter of time until they got to him. Only a matter of time until this was finally over.

Alvoren Vandmorn arrived at the village of Verline, the small settlement north of the city of Arthol. His home. It was just as he remembered it—most villagers were out working the fields, merchants sold their wares, and children were playing happily in the streets while their mothers supervised. As he walked towards the central plaza, several people looked at them and either scoffed or winced.

They’re so glad to see me! he thought sarcastically, then chuckled to himself. Of course, his reputation was well earned. He had officially been labeled a ‘disturber of the peace.’ But, he didn’t care. He would become a hero, no matter what people told him. And, if being an adventurer earned him ugly looks from among some villagers, then so be it.

Alvoren headed directly for the inn. He entered, making the bell ring, and sat down on a table. It didn’t have much people at the moment—most of them would be out working in the fields—so the barmaid immediately noticed him. While she prepared to attend him, Alvoren unbuckled his sword from his waist, resting it against his chair, then pulled down his hood, revealing a handsome face with dark hair swept back.

“Alvoren,” the barmaid said, badly hiding her disdain. “You’re back.”

“Glad to see me, huh?” he said, smiling. “And, please call me Axerhos. Although ‘great hero’ Axerhos will do too.”

The barmaid rolled her eyes, scoffing. “Just tell me what ya want, Alvoren.”

“A glass of water will do fine,” Alvoren said, partially disappointed she didn’t call him by his self-imposed codename Axerhos. “As I’m here mainly for information. I heard rumors that the Transmutator was here some days ago?”

“Yeah,” she replied, fetching the water and offering it to him in a wooden jug. “He was here several days ago, caused a stir in old Gilda’s shop, then left. Weird fellow, that one, I tell ya.”

“Hmmm,” Alvoren said, drinking his water. “Did you guys see the direction in which he left?”

“North,” she said. “You still tryin’ ta be a hero, huh? I doubt you’re being any good at it.”

“I’m not just trying. I am a hero,” he answered, grinning, ignoring the insult.

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes once more, then leaving.

Alvoren had heard strange things about the Transmutator. He seemed to be extremely destructive, but not actually committing any crimes.

Hmmm. It seemed like a contradiction. I guess I’ll just have to go and see for myself, test him, he thought. Because he didn’t want to become a bounty hunter. He wanted to become a hero, no matter how hard it was. And he’d become one. He’d show them. They’d see.

It had been about a day and a half since Merdilen had left the House of Records and Mithforden, and the late afternoon sun provided the perfect light for reading. Merdilen had been reading for hours, and although the books were way too long for him to fully read in the time he could afford to spend, he had had a quick look at them and had caught the gist of the information. The book ‘Transmutators: Masters of Matter’ was a study made by some old historian on the lives and careers of the two main Transmutators, while the book ‘Transmutation War: Cataclysm’ showed the story of the last leg of the war, including details about its end.

He had begun with the first one. He had always thought there had been several Transmutators during the period of the Transmutation War, but it seemed like there had been just two of them. They had been childhood friends, two brilliant minds destined to do great things. A chemist and a biologist.

Their names had been Kateko Arthenmon and Morkilen Forenthar.

They had grown up in the 1800’, during a period which he had never heard about before: something talked about here as the ‘Industrial Revolution.’ During the Industrial Revolution, several industries had boomed, creating better inventions every day that completely revolutionized the world, therefore its name. Two young boys, Kateko Arthenmon and Morkilen Forenthar, had been caught up in all the hype the Industrial Revolution had caused, and had therefore decided to become scientists.

They had become quite successful, publishing papers and articles in something referred to here as ‘prominent science magazines,’ but Kateko didn’t feel satisfied. He felt like just another generic scientist out there, and even though they were doing great, he felt like they had never really discovered anything special or unique, that all they had ever done was improve the discoveries of others. And so he started a search for something that made him stand out, and stumbled upon an ancient art that should have never been found, that had never been made to be dominated by humans. The power to Transmutate matter.

Transmutation.

Kateko had initially tried to keep it secret, as he had understood how powerful the Transmutation could really be, but then Morkilen, his science partner, had found out about it. He reasoned they had discovered this power for a reason, and that they had the right to use it however they deemed better. On the contrary, Kateko didn’t want to use it, argumenting it was something too powerful, and that if it fell into the wrong hands, it had the potential to destroy the world.

Their discussions started becoming more and more heated, until in a sudden burst of anger, Morkilen had stolen the chemical used to access the Transmutation, and had injected it on himself. Kateko tried to stop him, first by words and then by using the serum for actually wielding the Transmutation himself against his opponent, but none of the two had been able to overpower his friend-turned-enemy. That had been the catalyst that had started the biggest conflict mankind would ever face. The Transmutation War.

But the book didn’t just have history lessons. It also had what Merdilen had been looking for in the first place. Detailed maps showing the location of the two Transmutator’s fortresses during the war. Based on the position of his own ancestor’s base, Merdilen realized his ancestor had been Kateko Arthenmon. To hide their origin from the rest of the world, Merdilen’s family line had thrown away the family name generations ago, so it was interesting to find out what their original family name had actually been. Deep down, he was for some reason relieved to know his ancestor hadn’t been Morkilen.

So my name is Merdilen Arthenmon, huh, he thought with curiosity. He then kept pondering about the information.

As he already knew, Kateko’s fortress was far west of the kingdom of Fergahn, and he now also found out that Morkilen’s fortress was far south of the same kingdom. It seemed those two fortresses had been in actual kingdoms during the Transmutation War, but those warzones had been way too destroyed and couldn’t be fixed. That explained why shadow monsters only came from the south of the world. And that was the place where he would have to go now if he wanted to survive. Although Merdilen’s map only depicted the kingdom of Fergahn, the book, fortunately, contained an appendix in which he saw a small map of the entire regions south and west of Fergahn, so he spent a while copying it into his own map. The journey towards it would probably take several weeks on foot.

While the first book, ‘Transmutators: Masters of Matter,’ talked about the beginning of the Transmutation War, the second book, ‘Transmutation War: Cataclysm,’ talked about its end.

At some point during the war, the two Transmutators had amassed massive armies, and the whole world had already taken sides. But the war had been raging for too long, and Kateko felt like they would have to take action soon if they wanted humanity to be somewhat saved. So, channeling all his Transmutation power into one giant object, he created a rock giant, a massive humanoid controlled by himself that should be able to channel his Transmutation and empower it. Parallel to him, Morkilen created his own rock giant, and on the last battle of the Transmutation War, the two rock giants fought.

Merdilen wasn’t sure if Kateko was losing or if he was just not winning, but at some point during the battle, he had realized he would never be victorious if they kept fighting the way they had fought during the whole war, so Kateko triggered a secret weapon he had hidden inside his rock giant for if things went horribly wrong. The most macabre attack in human history. Kateko had already understood Morkilen was nigh-invincible, as he was so extremely powerful in the Transmutation nothing could physically hurt him anymore. So, with his scientific genius, he discovered the only way to actually kill him.

Throughout his experiments and experience, Kateko had understood that Transmutators had an extreme attunement to the natural world, which was why they were able to Transmutate things. But when you talk to the world, the world talks back. As they were both extremely powerful already, their attunement to the world was so immense that they could sense where people were without looking at them, they could catch a fly in midair, and they could feel people’s deaths. People’s deaths felt like a slight pain in their minds. And Kateko was going to use that to his advantage. Morkilen’s ultimate power would be his eventual doom.

Kateko knew what he had to do. His ‘secret weapon’ he had hidden inside his rock giant was a bomb. When he triggered it, it caused the biggest explosion to be ever seen in human history, killing both armies instantly. The bomb expanded throughout the whole world, not by emitting destruction, but by emitting a flammable shockwave that would make every single fire in the world blow up, destroying the world of Gartaena completely. Of course, Morkilen had been able to shield himself completely from the blast, not getting as much as a scratch, but it had all been according to Kateko’s plan.

If Morkilen used the Transmutation to shield himself, he would keep his attunement to the world, and the pain of millions of people dying at the same time would absolutely destroy his mind. But if he somehow cut himself off from the Transmutation, the physical explosion would destroy his body. It was the ultimate attack. But the ultimate sacrifice. Kateko chose to sacrifice the whole world to stop his enemy, as he knew that if he didn’t, millions of generations into the future would suffer and die, as Morkilen would be able to live forever because of the Transmutation.

Kateko Arthenmon had defeated Morkilen Forenthar, the enemy he himself had created, but at a terrible cost. The explosion destroyed every single settlement in the world, and ninety-percent of the world’s population died. And as all that remained were tiny villages with almost no fire in them, most of them had no technology, so civilization regressed… almost seven centuries. It seemed that the world had had technology far superior before the Transmutation War, but none of it had survived the massive explosion that had destroyed the world.

The world of Gartaena had been completely destroyed, but at least the Transmutators had been destroyed too. Gartaena was finally at peace… until Merdilen arrived. For the first time in his life, Merdilen fully grasped the consequences of the Transmutation War. Not only had it destroyed Gartaena’s landscape, but it had also regressed civilization by a full seven hundred years, and it had killed approximately the exorbitant amount of nine million people. No wonder everyone was trying to kill him.

But, that gave him responsibility. Responsibility to use his powers for good and to atone for the sins of his forefathers. Of course, it’d be impossible for him to bring back the people who had died, but there was something he could do. He would fix the world. If he reached the fortress of Morkilen Forenthar, chances were he would gain enough power to reverse part of the damage the Transmutation War had caused. He would gradually heal and fix the earth, returning the landscape to its original form, to how it should be. But to do that, he would have to reach the fortress.

Merdilen was pondering that, so deeply immersed in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the man approaching him. A shout from behind startled him.

“Behold, villainous foe! Your reign of terror has ended! You will finally fall, slain by none other than the great hero Axerhos!”

Merdilen turned around sharply, surprised, only to find a man standing a few feet away from him, pointing at him with a sword. The man, who had seemingly identified himself as ‘Axerhos,’ was taller than he was, had black hair swept back, and was wielding a longsword in his right arm and a shield in his left. He didn’t seem to be wearing any kind of armor. Merdilen would have thought he was a bounty hunter if he hadn’t introduced himself as a ‘great hero.’ Now he was just confused.

Merdilen was puzzled by his sudden introduction, like he was some kind of fairy tale hero, as most enemies he fought didn’t bother about talking and preferred instead to have the advantage of surprise. “What?” was all he could reply.

“Don’t try to fool me, you monster!” Axerhos exclaimed. “Now I, the great hero Axerhos, will claim your head, and restore peace and justice to the world of Gartaena!”

“...” It seemed this man was more theatrics than actual skill, but it’d be better not to underestimate him anyways. Merdilen quickly made a small rock cover for his backpack and books, and then Transmutated a part of the ground into his trusty black sword as Axerhos charged.

The man slashed down with his longsword at Merdilen, and the moment he lifted his own longsword to block, Axerhos used Merdilen’s blade as support to turn his own attack from a slash to a thrust. Merdilen was able to sidestep at the last moment, but not without a superficial cut on his left shoulder. The man then slashed twice at Merdilen, both of which he dodged by stepping backward. Axerhos was clearly strong and fast, although not as strong as the big man from the killers’ team and not as quick as the red-haired girl from the same team.

Still, he was a formidable swordsman in his own right, and would have overwhelmed any normal opponent. But Merdilen was no normal opponent. As he was a Transmutator, Axerhos had no way of knowing what he would do, and so Merdilen was at a massive advantage. That’s why the killers had created that thing to stop him from using the Transmutation, as there was no way of predicting what a Transmutator would actually do in a fight.

Merdilen then concentrated his Transmutation on his feet and prepared to turn the ground below his attacker into quicksand to trip him, but the moment he looked downwards, Axerhos attacked, not with his right arm wielding his longsword, but with his left. Merdilen then realized. He had forgotten about his shield. His enemy attacked him with his shield, and even though a shield would deal almost no damage, it was so big it was almost impossible to block. The shield hit Merdilen square in the face, stunning him and forcing him to back down several steps. Merdilen tried to turn the sand into quicksand anyway, but because of his temporal dizziness, he missed the spot he aimed for by several feet.

Axerhos then jumped to the side, towards a tree, and boosting himself by kicking it, sprang towards Merdilen.

“Ultimate Technique: Whirlwind Slash!” he shouted, and rotated his arms to the right. His whole body rotated to the right, and he gave two full spins in the air, gaining momentum before falling on Merdilen. Although at plain sight it seemed more theatrics than anything, it was actually an elaborate well-executed technique. As he held his shield and sword on opposite sides of his body while he spinned, he had no weak spots, so even if he wasn’t able to do anything while he was in the air, he didn’t have the risk of being attacked during the process either.

Because of the momentum, he was charging Merdilen too fast for him to dodge, and it’d be too strong an attack for him to block with his sword. So he concentrated, and channeling his power to his arms, he turned both sleeves of his jacket into thick steel, partially turning his jacket into armor. Axerhos slashed at him with all the accumulated momentum, and his blade screeched as it entered into contact with Merdilen’s sleeve armor. His eyes widened as he saw his attack being blocked by what seemed to be bare arms, and Merdilen used that temporary confusion to his advantage. He immediately turned the sleeve armor back into his light leather sleeves, and then Transmutated a small stone wall behind his attacker.

Axerhos didn’t notice it at all, and then Merdilen sprang at him, intending to tackle him. Axerhos instinctively backed away, and he would have been able to evade the tackle, but he then tripped on the stone wall Merdilen had Transmutated earlier. Merdilen shoved him to the ground, and pressed his longsword to Axerhos’ neck, but without actually cutting.

“Even if you kill me, foul villain, you will never win!” exclaimed dramatically the fallen attacker, throwing his head back and closing his eyes.

Merdilen didn’t do anything for a few seconds, puzzled as he was, and then Axerhos cautiously open an eye. “Why are you not killing me?” he asked, and then his eyes widened in dramatic understanding. “I get it! You’re even worse than I thought! You plan on torturing me, the great hero Axerhos, in order to exert a long-awaited vengeance!”

“I’m not killing you nor torturing you. I have nothing against you. In fact, I’d never heard about you in my life,” Merdilen replied genuinely, raising an eyebrow.

Axerhos now looked more confused than ever before, and Merdilen got up, releasing him. He didn’t seem like he’d attack Merdilen again, at least not for now.

“Get up, drama queen,” he told the man, and as they both stood up, he saw something from the rear of his eye.

Another man was standing behind a tree a distance away, looking at them. He was wielding a greatsword, and the moment he noticed Merdilen had spotted him, he raised his greatsword and charged at them with a roar.

Another bounty hunter?! Merdilen thought, but before he could react, Axerhos ran at the attacker from besides Merdilen, and both their swords clashed in midair, screeching and throwing sparks.

“So that’s how it is, huh?” Axerhos exclaimed. “My evil enemies crafted an intricate and villainous complot to turn the Transmutator and myself against each other, weaken us, and then kill us both, is that right?!”

“I don’t know what the heck you’re mumbling about, but out of my way! I’m looking for him!” the new attacker shouted, gesturing at Merdilen. “Outta my way or I’m killing you!”

“Don’t act like you don’t know! I’m not going to play your games. And you’ll find out the great hero Axerhos is not someone easy to kill!”